Florida

Trump wanted Brenda Snipes to be fired

(Newser) -
After recounts, Florida has a new governor and a new senator —and Broward County is going to get a new elections supervisor. Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes handed in her resignation Sunday, hours after a manual recount finished and Democrat Bill Nelson conceded the Senate election to Gov....
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But Joshua Quick says he doesn't deserve it

(Newser) -
Joshua Quick is being hailed as a hero—now, if only he would agree. "I want to offer my gratitude to everybody," said the second-year Florida State University law student Friday at a meeting of FSU's board of trustees, per the Tallahassee Democrat . "Thank you all...
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But it doesn't exactly work out, police say

(Newser) -
This burglar knew his target—a vending machine—but couldn't seem to get much out of it, WECT reports. Surveillance video shows the man at Miami's Dominion Tower apartment building pushing a vending machine into an elevator, where police say he took it to the eighth floor. "...
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Rick Scott says Bill Nelson has 'graciously conceded'

(Newser) -
Sen. Bill Nelson conceded a bitterly fought Florida Senate race Sunday after a recount showed him trailing Gov. Rick Scott by more than 10,000 votes, CNN reports. "I just spoke with Senator Bill Nelson, who graciously conceded, and I thanked him for his years of service," says...
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The Democrat re-concedes gubernatorial race

(Newser) -
Andrew Gillum has ended his race for Florida governor, Time reports. In a Facebook video, the Democrat conceded the race Saturday after finding himself 30,000 votes behind Republican Ron DeSantis in a legally mandated machine recount. DeSantis' margin was above the 0.25 percentage points required for a manual...
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Fla. woman accused of promising her unborn child to 2 different couples, defrauding them of $19K

(Newser) -
A couple thought they'd be adopting in the fall the baby Christina Bay was carrying, and they signed a contract in the spring and handed over nearly $15,000 to pay for the Florida woman's living arrangements in Daytona Beach during her pregnancy. The problem was, police say,...
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But the race for governor appears to be decided

(Newser) -
Florida's secretary of state has ordered a manual recount in the state's hotly contested US Senate race, the AP reports. Department of State spokeswoman Sarah Revell said in a news release Thursday evening that unofficial returns from a machine recount had triggered a second recount in the Senate...
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If you guessed a lobster, you'd be correct

(Newser) -
You may not make the news if you simply steal a lobster, but if you're accused of taking it from a place named after the crustacean, you could be guaranteed a place among the day's headlines. That's what happened in St. Petersburg, Fla., where a 42-year-old woman...
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Recount drama rages on in Florida

(Newser) -
President Trump asserts that Republicans are losing elections because people are donning disguises to vote illegally. Trump made the claim while discussing the Florida recount with the Daily Caller , along with his belief that Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes should be fired (more on that here , here and here...
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President asserts that ballots are 'massively infected'

(Newser) -
President Trump on Monday stepped up his criticism of the Florida recount now underway in two big national races: In fact, he called for the recount to be scrapped. In a morning tweet , Trump said that Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott should be declared the winners of the gubernatorial...
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He claims 'unethical liberals' want to steal election

(Newser) -
With an unprecedented double recount underway in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott is fighting to get state police involved. The Republican governor—who is clinging to a slim lead in his Senate race with Democratic rival Bill Nelson—filed lawsuits Sunday calling for elections officials in Palm Beach and Broward counties...
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Florida's 'unprecedented' recount is underway

(Newser) -
After some early bumps, more than half of Florida's 67 counties began recounting votes Sunday in the razor-thin Senate and gubernatorial races, bringing back memories of the 2000 presidential fiasco, the AP reports. In Democratic-leaning Broward County, the scheduled start of the recount was delayed Sunday because of a...
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'Every vote will be counted,' says Democratic candidate for governor in Florida

(Newser) -
Florida has begun an unprecedented recount —for both the governor and Senate races—and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum is taking his previous concession to Ron DeSantis off the table, reports Politico . “I am replacing my words of concession in an unapologetic call that we count every vote,...
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US Senate and governor elections will be recounted

(Newser) -
The Florida secretary of state ordered recounts in the US Senate and governor races on Saturday, an unprecedented review of two major races in the state that took five weeks to decide the 2000 presidential election, the AP reports. Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order after the unofficial results in...
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Florida authorities say it's an escaped pet

(Newser) -
Florida authorities have caught a huge lizard that has terrified residents of a suburban Miami neighborhood for months, the AP reports. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Thursday the Asian water monitor lizard measures more than 8 feet long. The lizard is an escaped pet. It was first...
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Gubernatorial, US Senate races may go to recounts in Sunshine State

(Newser) -
Election Day has come and gone, but the drama continues in Florida, where the books have not yet been completely closed on both the race for governor and US Senate. The Sun Sentinel notes "fraud claims, angry protests. and courtroom skirmishes," specifically in Broward and Palm Beach counties....
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Trump weighs in, too

(Newser) -
President Trump says law enforcement is looking into a "big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud" in Florida's US Senate race, now poised for a recount. "Florida voted for Rick Scott!" Trump continued in a Thursday tweet shortly after Scott sat for an interview...
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Republican Ron DeSantis has a less than 0.5% lead.

(Newser) -
After more or less conceding the Florida gubernatorial race to his Republican opponent, Democrat Andrew Gillum is now reportedly ready for a recount. On Wednesday, with tens of thousands of votes still uncounted, Gillum tweeted , “I’m looking forward to seeing every vote counted,” per the Tallahassee Democrat ...
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Greyhound racing has been officially banned, will phase out by end of 2020

(Newser) -
Amendment 13 needed just 60% of Tuesday's votes to pass in Florida, but more than 5.3 million voters, or 69%, cast their ballots in favor of it—meaning by the end of 2020, legal dog racing in the Sunshine State will be no more, NBC News reports. It'...
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Florida surgeon Ramon Vazquez faces complaint from state

(Newser) -
Maureen Pacheco suffered from back pain she hoped the fusing of vertebrae in her lower back could fix. A surgeon instead removed one of her kidneys. Dr. Ramon Vazquez, whom Pacheco met moments before going under the knife at Florida's Wellington Regional Medical Center on April 29, 2016, was...
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